Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	soul_n	time_n	1,787	5	3.7088	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59575	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and Aldermen of London, at Bow-church by John Sharpe ...	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1676 (1676)	Wing S3001; ESTC R15183	21,301	51

almost continually charged The Modesty of it cloaths us at a small rate and its Temperance spreads for us though a neat yet a frugal Table The attendance it requires on our Business will not allow us to embezel our money in Drinking or Gaming nor will that Purity which is inseparable from it ever let us know what the vast and sinking expences of lewdness and uncleanness are In a word it is Vice only that is the chargeable thing it is only Shame and Repentance that men buy at such costly rates Godliness is saving and full of good Husbandry nor has it any known or unknown ways of spending except it be those of Charity which indeed in proper speaking are not so much expence as Usury for money so laid out doth always even in this life return to us with Advantage The fourth and last means I mentioned of Thriving in the world was the keeping a good Correspondence with all those in whose power it is to hinder or promote our Affairs This every body knows to be a prime point in Policy and indeed it is of a large extent and of continual use No man can be supposed so independent on others but that as he is some way beholden to them for all that he has so he stands in need of their help and concurrence for all that he hopes for Men do not make their fortunes of themselves nor grow rich by having Treasures dropped in their Laps but they do it by the benefit of Humane Society by the mutual assistances and good offices that one man performs for another So that whoever intends to thrive in the world it above all things imports him so to carry himself towards all that he hath any commerce with so far to secure their favour and good will that they may be obliged not to deny him any of those assistances which the exigency of his Affairs calls for at their hands But now how this should be done any otherwise than by being truly Just and Honest by abstaining from Violence and Injury by being True to our Trusts and Faithful in performing our Contracts and in a word by doing all those good Offices to others which we expect they should do unto us which as our Saviour tells us is the sum of Religion is a very hard thing to conceive The usefulness or rather the necessity of such a Behaviour as this in order to the gaining the good Opinion of others and so serving our own ends by them is so universally acknowledged that even those that make no real Conscience of these things are yet nevertheless in all their dealings forced to pretend to them Open and Bare-fac'd Knavery rarely serves a mans turn in this world but it is under the mask of Virtue and Honesty that it usually performs those Feats it doth which is no less than a Demonstration of the conduciveness of those things to promote our Temporal Interests for if the meer Pretence to them be a great advantage to us for this purpose it cannot be imagined but that the Reality of them will be a greater Certainly the Power of Godliness will be able to do more than the Form alone and that if it was upon no other account than this that no man that is but a meer Pretender to Honesty can long hope to keep his credit among men It is impossible to act a Part for any long time let him carry it never so cunningly his Vizor will some time or other be thrown off and he will appear in his true colours and to what a world of mischiefs and inconveniences he will then be exposed every one that knows how hated how detested how abandon'd by every one a Knave and a Villain is may easily determine I hope I need say no more to convince you that Religion is the best Policy and that the more hearty and consciencious any man is in the practice of it the more likely he is to Thrive and Improve in the world So that I may now proceed to the second general point to be spoken to which is the Profitableness of Religion for the attaining a good Name and Reputation How very much it conduceth to this purpose will appear from these two considerations First it lays the surest Grounds and Foundations for a good Name and Reputation Secondly Men are generally so just to it that it rarely misses of a good Name and Reputation The first is an argument from Reason the second from Experience First of all Godliness layeth the truest Foundations for a fair Reputation in the world There are but two things that can give a man a title to the good Opinion and Respects of men the inward Worth and Dignity of his Person and his Usefulness and Serviceableness to others The first of these challengeth mens Esteem the other their Love Now both these Qualities Religion and Virtue do eminently possess us of For first the Religious man is certainly the most Worthy and Excellent Person for he of all others lives most up to the great End for which he was designed which is the natural measure of the Goodness and Worth of Things What ever external Advantages a man may have yet if he be not endowed with virtuous Qualities he is far from having any True Worth or Excellence and consequently cannot be a fit object of our Praise and Esteem because he wants that which should make him Perfect and Good in his Kind For it is not a comely Personage or a long Race of Famous Ancestors or a large Revenue or a multitude of Servants or many swelling Titles or any other thing without a man that speaks him a Compleat Man or makes him to be what he should be but the right use of his Reason the employing his Liberty and Choice to the best purposes the Exercising his Powers and Faculties about the fittest Objects and in the most due measures These are the Things that make him Excellent Now none can be said to do this but only he that is Virtuous Secondly Religion also is that which makes a man most Useful and Profitable to others for it effectually secures his performance of all those Duties whereby both the security and welfare of the Publick and also the Good and Advantage of particular Persons is most attained It makes men Lovers of their Country Loyal to their Prince Obedient to Laws it is the surest Bond and Preservative of Society in the world it obliges us to live peaceably and to submit our selves to our Rulers not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake It renders us modest and governable in Prosperity and resolute and couragious to suffer bravely in a good cause in the worst of times It teacheth us to endeavour as much as in us lies to promote the good of every particular Member of the Community to be inflexibly upright to do hurt to none but good offices to all to be charitable to the Bodies and Souls of men to do all manner of kindnesses that

to for you will then find that you have hereby gained an entrance into a far greater and more perfect Liberty How ungentilely how much against the grane of Nature soever it now looks to forgive an Injury or an Affront you will then find it to be as far more eafie so far more sweet than to revenge one You will no longer think works of Charity burdensome or expensive or that to do good Offices to every one is an employment too mean for you for you will then experience that there is no sensuality like that of doing good and that it is a greater pleasure to do a kindness than to receive one How will you chide your self for having been so averse to Prayer and other devout Exercises accounting them as tiresome unfavoury things when you begin to feel the delicious Relishes they leave upon your spirit You will then confess that no Conversation is half so agreeable as that which we enjoy with God Almighty in Prayer no Cordial so reviving as heartily to pour out our souls unto him And then to be affected with his Mercies to praise and give thanks to him for his Benefits what is it but a very Heaven upon Earth an anticipation of the Joys of Eternity Nay you will not be without your pleasures even in the very entrance of Religion then when you exercise acts of Repentance when you mourn and afflict your self for your sins which seems the frightfullest thing in all Religion For such is the nature of that holy sorrow that you would not for all the world be without it and you will find far greater Contentment and satisfaction in grieving for your Offences then ever you did receive from the Committing them But O the ineffable Pleasures that do continually spring up in the heart of a good man from the sense of Gods Love and the hope of his Favour and the fair prospect he hath of the Joy and Happiness of the other world How pleasing how transporting will the thought of these things be to you To think that you are one of those happy souls that are of an Enemy become the Friend of God that your ways please him and that you are not only Pardoned but Accepted and Beloved by him to think that you a poor Creature who were of your self nothing and by your sins had made your self far worse than nothing are yet by the goodness of your Saviour become so considerable a Being as to be able to give delight to the King of the world and to cause joy in Heaven among the Blessed Angels by your Repentance to think that God charges his Providence with you takes care of all your Concerns hears all your Prayers provides all things needful for you and that he will in his good time take you up unto himself to live everlastingly in his Presence to be partaker of his Glories to be ravished with his Love to be acquainted with his Counsels to know and be known by Angels Archangels and Seraphims to enjoy a Conversation with Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and all the Raised and Glorified Spirits of Brave Men and with all these to spend a happy and a rapturous Eternity in Adoring in Loving in Praising God for the Infiniteness of his Wisdom and the Miracles of his Mercy and Goodness to all his Creatures Can there be any Pleasure like this Can any thing in the world put you into such an Ecstasie of Joy as the very thought of these things With what a mighty scorn and contempt will you in the sense of them look down upon all the little Gauderies and sickly Satisfactions that the men of this world keep such a stir about How empty evanid how flat and unsavoury will the best Pleasures on Earth appear to you in comparison of these Divine Contentments You will perpetually rejoyce you will sing Praises to your Saviour you will bless the day that ever you became acquainted with him you will confess him to be the only master of Pleasure in the world and that you never knew what it was to be an Epicure indeed till you became a Christian. Thus have I gone through all those Heads which I at first proposed to insist on What now remains but that I resume the Apostles Exhortation with which I begun this Discourse that since as you have seen Godliness is so exceedingly profitable to all the purposes of this Life as well as the other since as you have seen Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour and all her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace you would all be perswaded seriously to Apply your selves to the exercise of it Which that you may do God of his c. FINIS